IN AN amazing twist of fate, rain struck Nantwich and South Cheshire Show in the same way for the second year running.

IN AN amazing twist of fate, rain struck Nantwich and South Cheshire Show in the same way for the second year running.

Fine weather up to the day before Wednesday's show had left the Dorfold Park show ground in a good and improving condition.

Then, six hours of rain overnight once more turned the arena into a mud bath.

Despite the conditions, it is estimated that 26,000 people attended the show, 4,000 more than last year.

Show joint secretary Adrian Lawrence told the Chronicle: 'It was unbelievable that almost exactly the same thing has happened two years on the run.

'The weather turned the show into an almost exact replica of the 2002 event yet, despite that, thousands of people still turned up, which is very encouraging.'

'We had hoped to top the 30,000 attendance mark this year for the first time ever, and I think we would have achieved that easily, but for the weather.'

The show, which costs &#xA3;375,000 to stage, ran at a loss last year, but Mr Lawrence said it was too early to say if that was also the case this year.

He said: 'We had record sponsorship this year and packed trade displays, so our financial position may not be as bad as might have been expected, but until we have gone through everything thoroughly we can't say whether we are up or down on the day.'

A disappointment for the crowd was the non-appearance of the Royal Signals White Helmets motor cycle display team, intended to be one of the main-ring attractions.

The team's view that the ring was too wet to risk a performance was not shared by Mr Lawrence.

He said: 'We viewed the arena both in the afternoon and evening prior to the scheduled performances, and in our view the ground conditions were perfectly acceptable on both occasions. But they decided not to go ahead.'

The show committee spent &#xA3;15,000 on a new style of tracking in a bid to protect some of the main show lanes.

Though the protected areas were better than those left uncovered, it is doubtful if anything would have been fully effective.

Mr Lawrence said: 'We had complaints from people who said we should have covered every lane, but that would have cost us something like &#xA3;100,000.

'At the end of the day, we are a charity show. When we make a profit we make donations to charities, but if we sanctioned that kind of financial lay-out we would never make anything.'

The conditions meant that visitors slipped and slithered their way across much of the show ground, and tractors worked non-stop getting cattle wagons and horse boxes on and off the ground.

At about 5pm, when many of the day's events were over and people were thinking of going home - the sun came out!